An NPR correspondent (Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, I believe) had to make her way this morning to a land line in Cairo, Egypt to phone in her update after all internet, cell phone and satellite phone signals had been cut off or jammed by the Egyptian government. Egypt is currently experiencing its largest popular protests in 30 years.<\/p>\n
She described the one protest she had witnessed as growing to 10,000 – 20,000 protesters after Friday prayers, in which the imam had supported the peoples’ right to protest but called for peaceful, non-violent demonstrations. The correspondent noted this as significant, given the role of imams in the governing structure of Egypt.<\/p>\n
It is being widely reported that the police are using rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds, and this particular journalist herself had been affected. Apparently many Egyptian citizens not protesting themselves are driving around Cairo, offering rides to those who look afflicted by tear gas. One such young man, who said he does not “have the lungs for it,” was driving around throwing eggs at police and gave her a ride to a land line. <\/p>\n
Nelson reported that the police were using so much tear gas, it “spread across the neighborhood and some people were ‘fainting on the streets’.” In fact, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, who had returned to Cairo for the protests was “soaked by water cannon and forced to take refuge in a mosque,” according to an AP report, and according to The Telegraph, UK, is now being held by authorities.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Telegraph also reports, “For the first time, his government has expressed its willingness to enter into “dialogue” with the opposition. But it has also warned or dire consequences for anyone participating in the protests.” <\/p>\n
Those warnings do not seem to be diminishing citizen involvement, however. Guardian reporter Jack Shenker commented on Democracy Now! yesterday that the “fear barrier seems to have been broken. These are sort of middle-class people who are generally enjoying quite a comfortable standard of living… They\u2019ve got a lot to lose, and yet they\u2019re still being motivated to come out, to be beaten, to be hit by water cannons, to be carried off into the desert,” he says. “There\u2019s so much energy and so much momentum behind what\u2019s going on…”<\/p>\n
Beginning with Tunisia and continuing in Egypt and Yemen, it seems a match has been struck in the middle east that will not easily be blown out, at least not before some political restructuring.<\/p>\n
Yesterday in Yemen, thousands of people are demonstrated against President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital Sana\u2019a for the second time in less than a week. The demonstrations appear to be the largest ever to directly oppose Saleh\u2019s three-decade leadership. Saleh has been an important U.S. ally in the Middle East, as has Egypt’s Mubarak. According to Democracy Now!, “classified U.S. Department of State cables released by WikiLeaks show the United States and Saleh have covered up the use of U.S. warplanes to bomb Yemen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An NPR correspondent (Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, I believe) had to make her way this morning to a land line in Cairo, Egypt to phone in her update after all internet, cell phone and satellite phone signals had been cut off or jammed by the Egyptian government. Egypt is currently experiencing its largest popular protests in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}